


Primer of the Ordo Originatus

by AgripinaaFalls



Series: Archives of the Ordo Originatus [1]
Category: Horus Heresy - Various Authors, Warhammer 40.000, imperium of man - Fandom, warhammer 30k
Genre: Great Crusade (Warhammer), Historiography, History, inquisitors feuding (warhammer)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-17
Updated: 2017-01-17
Packaged: 2018-09-18 05:39:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9370565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgripinaaFalls/pseuds/AgripinaaFalls
Summary: A brief primer on the historiography of the Imperium of Man, given to acolytes of the Ordo Originatus of the God-Emperor's Holy Inquisition. Or, my attempt at taking the various periods of Warhammer's history and trying to forge it into a historical narrative.





	

The historical records of the Unification Era are marked by the sharp contrast in the manner of their telling. The God-Emperor, blessed be his wisdom, finding no use for the quibbling nature of pre-Imperial historians, employed other means of recording the ascendency and society of the Imperium of Man. Imperial works of the time draw comparisons to the work of the Iterator order of the Great Crusade, and indeed can be understood as a predecessor to the work of that order. Such histories as still exist from the Unification era `(and have not fallen prey to the misguided Radicals of the Ordo Redactus)` are literary works, often preserved by the holy Ecclesiarchy. Such access as is allowed is first and foremost to fellow members of the Adeptus Ministorum `(or, on occasion, Inquisitors posing as members of the Ecclesiarchy)` in order to sermonize on the history of the Imperium and the glories of the God-Emperor, blessings upon him.

The more traditional historians of the decadent techno-barbarian courts, as if unaware of the monsters who sponsored them, decried the earliest works of the Imperium as “the worst excesses of ‘Great Man’ histories”. To seek ways to criticize the God-Emperor and the miracle of Unity, while praising the “realpolitik” of mutants, witches, and abominations like the Ethnarch Tang or Narthan Dume, the Unspeakable King, speaks to the moral bankruptcy of the techno-barbarian states that dominated holy Terra before the wars of Unity.

As a further note on the Ecclesiarchy’s use of the histories of Unification, it is important to note that only a section of the Imperial historiography surrounding the Unification era. Although the godless Imperial Creed was enforced with the surety of its fanaticism even in the founding days of the Imperium, many sources from this time period praised the holy Emperor as a divine figure, which would in turn influence the writings of the foul traitors of the Word Bearers, with Lorgar, their accursed Primarch, drawing on many of these sources both in the Lectitio Divinitatus and in lesser works still in use by the Ecclesiarchy today. Although this intermediary link has been since purged `(in what remains a rare case of useful action by the Ordo Redactus)`, it is worth noting in the context of following sections of Imperial historiography.

In the time period surrounding Unification, the question of psykers remained one essential to the many discourses surrounding the Imperial histories of the time. Though the God-Emperor, blessings in his name, was and is the greatest psychic mind known to the galaxy, the psyker and the witch were rightly feared and despised on Terra, as on nearly every world that survived the Age of Strife. The acceptance of the Navis Nobilite and astropaths within the functioning of the Imperium of Man was a painstaking process, driven primarily by two works: Strelkovsky’s _Princes of the Third Eye_ , a history of the Navigator clans of holy Terra, and Kindhyete’s _The Emperor’s Voice_ , an account compiled by numerous interviews with some of the first souls of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica. Although Strelkovsky’s work was kept vague by the lack of details the Navis Nobilite permitted him to release, Kindhyete’s work was widely read, and even during the Librarian Crisis and the Council of Nikaea their work found its way into the defense of the traitorous Magnus the Red.

Although the histories of the Unification wars may have been perceived at the time as a grand undertaking, the Imperial historiography relies little on the earliest days of its studies. The Great Crusade awaited, and amidst the stars, the true beginning of the Imperium of Man’s history would begin.


End file.
